Last Word: Gender Bias in Academe
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| Audience/Grade: | College Freshman - Graduate |
| Discipline(s): |
Computing Diversity Engineering Diversity General Engineering, Engineering Science |
| Learning Resource Type: | Reference - Article/Document |
| Author(s): |
Alice Agogino
Organization: University of California at Berkeley Department: Mechanical Engineering |
| Description: | Editorial published ASEE Prism Magazine (November 2006, Vol. 16, No. 3) concerning the report recently released by the National Acadamy titled "Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering." Some excerpts from the editorial: "Summers' firestorm challenged us to scientifically address the question: Is there a biological basis for the low number of women in science and engineering and its professoriate? The report did show that biology makes a huge difference - not in innate abilities but rather in disadvantaging women in de facto discriminatory structures that were designed for men's biology. During a woman's prime child-bearing years, potential faculty members complete a Ph.D. and spend six or more years in the tenure clock. Gaps due to childbirth could make or break a woman's academic career during this period, forcing women in their late 20s and early 30s into making painful choices between tenure-track and a family. Not only is this a choice male peers aren't required to make, men's academic success actually increases with marriage and family. Women in other high-stress, high-performance jobs, such as medicine and law, are much more likely to have children than are women faculty. Unlike other professions, academe suffers from inadequate childcare, a rigid tenure clock, gendered metrics of success and a chilly climate among colleagues and administrators. . . . With increased challenges in sustainability, security, health, urbanization, natural disasters, population growth and globalization, the engineering enterprise cannot afford to waste the education and problem-solving potential of half of its population. This report should put to rest any question as to whether women have the capacity to contribute to engineering and its professoriate. It provides strategies for action that can turn things around for academics who have the will and commitment to implement them. |
| Rating: | No Rating |
| Related Resources | |
| References |
Beyond Bias and Barriers: Fulfilling the Potential of Women in Academic Science and Engineering |
| Usage Tip | |
| Use of Resource: |
Gender Equity Starting point for discussions online or at faculty meeting. |
| Version Info | |
| Publication Date: | November 2006 |
| Platform/Format: | WWW |
| Cost: | Free |
| Download URL: | http://www.prism-magazine.org/nov06/last_word.cfm |
| Metadata: | IEEE LOM Record |
| Collection: |
NEEDS
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